Apprenticeship Patterns

In times of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
- Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition

Blogger’s Note: This review of the book Apprenticeship Patterns by Dave H. Hoover and Adewale Oshineye was originally posted at ChicagoRuby.org/book-reviews.

A New Profession

Software development is among the newest of professions – roughly 70 years old depending on what you consider to be the beginning. The field is in a constant state of flux. New languages, new theories, new ways of communicating with clients… the list seems endless. How does a new developer keep up? How does a seasoned developer avoid growing stale?

Automatic ctags with RubyMotion and Vim

RubyMotion includes a rake task that generates Exuberant Ctags. To generate tags, run the following in the root directory of a RubyMotion project.

$ rake ctags

Make Ctags Better With Automation

Ctags make writing code more efficient. But we shouldn’t have to type $ rake ctags every time we create a new RubyMotion project. This article shows how to use a shell script to generate ctags automatically every time you create a new RubyMotion app.

The Vast and Endless Sea

All of us are inspired when we have a big goal to achieve. Antoine De Saint-Exupery expresses the idea well:

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, encourage them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

2013 is already proving to be an exciting year. Looking forward to more.

Why I Use Vim

My primary code-writing tools are:

• Xcode for Objective-C.
• Vim for Ruby, RubyMotion, and everything else.

Here are my reasons for using Vim, in priority order:

Code Pilot for Xcode Navigation

Code Pilot is a free tool that lets developers navigate quickly between files in Xcode. I was introduced to the tool yesterday by Don Bora, instructor of the Mobile Makers iOS Accelerated course that I’m currently taking.

Starting Code Pilot

After downloading and installing the product, launch Code Pilot by starting Xcode and using the SHIFT-COMMAND-X key sequence.

Code Pilot is free, but you still need to request and install the license file.